


Family Pictures

by Janieohio



Series: That's Life Together [15]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, M/M, Married Life, Memories, Parenthood, The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Toddlers, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, fluffy fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:28:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25922839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Janieohio/pseuds/Janieohio
Summary: Harry has finally gotten the family he's always wanted, and now he has the pictures to prove it. QL Round 10. Part of That's Life Together series, following Your Song (set June 2017).
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Series: That's Life Together [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1559218
Comments: 10
Kudos: 138





	Family Pictures

**Author's Note:**

> This story is written for Round 10 of the Quidditch League fanfiction competition. It is a stand-alone story and can be read as such. BUT — and this is a big but — it does fall into the universe of my **_That's Life Together_** series, falling three years after _Your Song_ in June 2017. It's been a few months since that series has had an update, but please know I have more plans for our little family to be written this fall. 

"Tell me about this one, Daddy!"

Harry looks down at his daughter, her three-year-old smile and moss-green eyes framed with messy blonde curls. His Lyra.

"Well, let's see," he says, examining the picture in the photo album. "I think here you were about five months old, and your Papa and I were arguing about what colour your eyes were going to be."

Lyra moves her chubby little fingers up to touch her eyes. "Why couldn't you see them?" she asks, awe in her voice.

"Well, babies' eyes sometimes don't turn the colour they'll be until after they've been born a little while. Your eyes were very light blue when you were tiny."

"Like Papa's and Auntie Luna's?"

"Exactly. And because you came from Auntie Luna's tummy and your Papa did a spell so he could be your Papa, too, he was sure you'd always have eyes like that. Then one day…"

* * *

"Potter, you're being ridiculous. Genetics are on my side. Besides, they're already that colour. They don't have to do any work to change."

Harry rolled his eyes. "They're changing, idiot. Look at them." Harry bent over the cot where Lyra lay looking up at her spinning mobile and cooing. "There's definitely green in them now."

Draco stood over her and made a face, making her laugh. He was good at that, and it made Harry's stomach clench with emotion. He loved seeing Draco as a father. "No, I don't see it," he drawled. "You're imagining things. Besides, her blonde hair just begs for grey-blue eyes."

Harry elbowed his husband in the side. "Well, I am a sucker for a pair of grey eyes."

Draco huffed in apparent outrage. "What the hell, Potter? I thought I was special."

"Mmm…" Harry hummed, distracted as he leaned over to pick up their daughter and snuffled his nose in her neck, breathing in the sweet smell of the child. Draco approached her other side and wrapped his arms around them both. Their eyes met, and Harry wanted to capture that feeling forever. His family.

* * *

"But I did have green eyes, Daddy!" Lyra chants. "Just like you!"

"You sure did, my Lyra-lou." Harry turns the page. The image of Lyra asleep on Draco's chest, her face red and sweaty, appears before them. The Draco in the picture looks exhausted.

"What's this one? Why does Papa look so tired?"

"You'd been sick, honey. Papa and I were still new to being daddies and didn't know how to take care of you very well yet."

"But you took care of Teddy when he was little, right?" Lyra's little face looks concerned, her lips pouting out in confusion.

"I did, and Uncle Draco helped too, but that was when Teddy was bigger. When he was tiny like you were here, he spent most of his time with Grammy Andi, so I never had a sick baby around. I had to learn how to do it."

Lyra nods gravely, as though she understands entirely. "So, what happened?"

"Well," Harry begins…

* * *

"Harry!"

Harry sat up in alarm from a deep sleep, his head still groggy. Looking around, he saw the bed next to him empty, then glanced at the clock. 3.36 am. Perfect.

"Potter! I need you, _now!_ "

Harry got up as he recognised the sound of panic in his husband's voice. He glanced down at his boxers and figured that was dressed enough, then walked quickly across the hallway to the bedroom with dim light flooding from the doorway. Ignoring the mural with the woodland creatures moving around the room, Harry focused on the blond man cradling the strangely silent infant against him.

He stopped and stared, then the panic he'd heard in Draco's voice flooded his chest. "What's wrong with her?" Middle-of-the-night emergencies had so far been few and far between. At only seven months old, Lyra had been a healthy baby, and once the two men had gotten the hang of swaddling the child, she'd woken for a quick feeding and gone back to sleep relatively easily. Molly said she was spoiling them, and Harry, having seen Hermione and Ron's struggle with Rosie, had to agree. Lyra was perfect.

But at the moment, she looked far from perfect. Her face was flushed, and her cries were almost silent. She was gasping for breath with a strange wheeze, and occasionally she'd bark out a harsh cough that sounded like a wounded seal.

"Do I look like I know? Get your wand and take her temperature," Draco ordered, his face even paler than usual.

Harry nodded and fled to his room, returning moments later and approaching his husband and daughter. "Hey, Lyra sweetie. Daddy's here," he said softly, trying to comfort her. He muttered a spell and numbers appeared in the air above her. "39.6. What does the book say?"

Draco held her close, rocking her back and forth. "It said anything over 38 is a fever, and over 39 we should call the Healer." He looked at Harry with fear in his grey eyes.

"Okay, hang on." Harry tried to remember back to what they'd read. "Give her to me. I'm going to steam up the shower and sit with her in there. The book said that would help when they're coughing and congested. You run down and Floo-call the Healer."

Draco held her close, running his hand through her pale-blonde curls, then nodded and handed her to Harry. She barked out another hoarse cough as Harry settled her in his arms, and he felt his pulse quicken as she struggled to breathe.

"Come on, Lyra baby. Daddy's got you." He stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower's hot water, then conjured a chair next to the tub and settled down with her. She'd stopped crying, and he watched as her breathing evened out slightly from the humid air. After a couple of minutes, she pulled back from him so she could see him, and her moss-green eyes were wide, the tips of her long blonde eyelashes wet with tears. She put a chubby hand on his cheek and patted.

Harry's heart lurched. His Lyra. Seven months ago he'd never imagined he'd love someone so entirely, so all-encompassing, as he did his daughter. He'd sworn nothing bad would happen to her, but of course, he couldn't protect her from everything.

Draco returned to the room several minutes later with a potion and a little dropper. "Fever reducer," he said quietly. "Healer said the steam was perfect, and that if we could keep her comfortable and get her fever down, we could wait till morning to bring her in. She said to cast a humidity charm in her room to help, so I've already done that."

Harry nodded and held her head back as Draco got her to take the medicine. He looked up at Draco. "Do you think we should lie her back down? She seems to be doing better sitting up."

Draco shook his head. "I can't sleep like this, worrying. You have work tomorrow; you go on back to sleep. I don't have anything pressing, so I'll stay up and hold her for a while." He reached down and took her from Harry's arms.

Harry followed them both back into her room, helping Draco get settled in the large armchair they used to read her stories. Her face was still flushed, but she was breathing more easily now and had fallen back to sleep. Harry leaned down and kissed Draco's face. "That was scary."

"Worse than any dark lords," Draco murmured.

* * *

"Papa always takes good care of me," Lyra says, the confidence in her voice amusing Harry.

"He takes good care of us both. We're pretty lucky, don't you think?" Harry smiles down at her.

Her cupid's bow lips curve up knowingly. "He does take care of you. He says you'd forget to eat if he didn't remind you."

Harry chuckled. "That's probably right."

Lyra reaches to turn the page of the photo album, this time taking several pages with her. "Oh, that's Hoggorts! And there's me and Teddy!"

Nodding, Harry points to Teddy's formal graduation robe and hat. "Do you remember why we were there?"

She shakes her head solemnly. "No. Tell me." Harry smiles, hearing the slight ring of Draco's command in her tiny voice.

* * *

"Teddy!" Lyra ran across the grass in front of the Black Lake as fast as her little two-year-old legs could carry her. "Congat-lasion!" she tried, unable to form the word completely. Harry stood back watching, Draco's hand in his.

"Thanks, Monster!" Teddy answered as he caught her.

"She's bloody adorable," Draco muttered under his breath.

"And got Teddy wrapped around her little finger," Harry added, watching Teddy swoop her up and toss her in the air, then catch her and cuddle her tightly. Her hands grabbed into his yellow and black Hufflepuff hair, worn long today in honour of the ceremony.

"I not monster," Lyra giggled, excited to continue their little joke.

"You're _my_ monster," Teddy added, then swung her around to show her off to all his friends.

Harry eyed Victoire shuffling up and almost choked when she ruffled Lyra's hair, then pulled Teddy down to meet her lips in a deep kiss.

"When did that happen?" Harry asked Draco quietly. "Did I miss a memo?"

Draco scoffed. "Not unless I did too. Must be new." He looked at Harry, his grey eyes crinkling at the edges in mirth. "It's not as though we haven't all seen this coming since they were little."

"No. I didn't expect it to take this long, really. I guess his leaving Hogwarts encouraged them to finally make their move."

"They almost look like a little family," Draco observed, then his tone took on an urgent tone. "He's too young. Go get Lyra from them so that we don't put any ideas in their idiotic heads."

Harry laughed, but squeezed Draco's hand and went after them, congratulating the other Hogwarts graduates as he made his way through the crowd. Reaching Teddy, he took his daughter from the young man, remembering what it was like to hold him as a child in the same way.

Teddy caught his gaze and seemed to know what he was thinking, rolling his eyes. "Uncle Harry," Teddy began, and Harry wanted to cheer. Teddy hadn't called him Uncle in almost three years. Teddy stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Harry and Lyra. "We did it."

Harry felt his eyes burn and cleared his throat. "I'm so proud of you, Ted," he whispered.

* * *

"I hope I go to Hoggarts and graduate someday like Teddy did. He looks so pretty." Harry can practically see the hearts in his daughter's green eyes for Teddy, and it makes him chuckle.

"Victoire thinks he's pretty too, you know," Draco's voice comes from behind them, causing them both to look up. "But he's not as pretty as me, is he?"

Harry rolls his eyes, but Lyra giggles. "You're pretty, Papa, but you don't have blue hair."

Draco stumbles back as though he's been hit, clutching his heart. "But, I thought I was _special_!"

"Papa!" Lyra jumps off the sofa and runs after Draco, throwing her arms around him. "You are! You have hair that looks just like me! That makes you very special."

Draco sighs in mock relief. "Phew. I was worried for a minute."

Lyra giggles and gives Draco a smacking kiss then runs over and offers one to Harry. He puts the photo album aside and reaches into the drawer to pull out the camera. He thinks back to the lack of pictures he'd had of his own family growing up, the torn picture laying on the floor of Sirius's bedroom at Grimmauld Place, and the photo album Hagrid had gifted him at the end of his first year.

He looks at his daughter and husband, smiles, then clicks the shutter and begins to shoot.

* * *

_Finis_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading, and remember to subscribe to the series to be notified of future instalments. I've got good plans set to be written this fall.
> 
> Competition information:  
> Challenge: Write same romantic pairing as Beater 2 (Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter)  
> Prompts: (object) photo album, (colour) moss green, (dialogue) "I thought I was special."  
> Note: The colour green is the colour of life, renewal, nature, and energy, is associated with meanings of growth, harmony, freshness, safety, fertility, and environment. Green is generally considered to be soothing, relaxing, and youthful. In this story and for this prompt, I use the colour green/moss green as the embodiment of Lyra, in both the colour of her eyes and her role in Harry's life.


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